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Soldiers of the Empire (episode)
After Worf becomes first officer of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey commanded by General Martok, he is caught between loyalty to his commander and loyalty to the crew. Summary The Klingon General Martok is slowly trying to regain the abilities he lost while he was prisoner of the Dominion. He had been wounded by Worf in a holosuite. The two men have come to have great respect for each other and when the Klingon High Council offers Martok his first mission since his escape from Internment Camp 371, he offers Worf to be his first officer aboard the IKS Rotarran, a bird of prey. The son of Mogh gladly accepts, explaining to Captain Benjamin Sisko that the General had saved his life while imprisoned at Internment Camp 371. Their mission is to find the B'Moth battle cruiser that has been missing for 3 days. Dax, jumping on the opportunity of being on a Klingon ship again, decides to come along. The contact with the crew is difficult because they had been through a series of failures and they hadn't felt like true Klingons in a long time. They are not so desperate and a little friendship could take place, but there is still a palpable tension that even 3 barrels of bloodwine (brought from DS9 by Dax) can't dissipate. Together with Martok new suspicions (going around a nebula to avoid contact with the Jem'Hadar, not destroying an enemy ship to avoid giving away their position even if they clearly had the advantage), the crew's confidence in their captain quickly fade. This rises again in the mess hall when they get drunk and Leskit begin to do an apology of the Jem'Hadar. He says that they have no honor and that makes them more efficient than Klingons. He even interprets the recent decisions of Martok as a fear of the Jem'Hadar. Suddently, Kornan goes berserk and attacks Leskit. In the fight, he nearly kills Ortikan who came to the rescue. Dax then ends the combat by shooting Kornan with a phaser. A little after, the Rotarran crew pick up a distress call from the B'Moth. It is an automatic transmission saying they were attacked by the Jem'Hadar, suffered heavy casualties and are in need of assistance. When they arrives in visual range, they realize that the battle cruiser has drifted into Cardassian space. Beeing under strict orders and suspecting a trap, Martok decides not to rescue the B'Moth. : There is a clip of Dax pushing some buttons on a control panel. Ronald D. Moore commented: "Dax was actually sending a message to Ortakin (Tavana's lover) warning him of the impending mutiny. Ortakin shows up on the Bridge a few seconds later with two other armed Klingons. The cutaway to Dax didn't read as well on camera as we had hoped and now Ortakin's arrival is a bit mysterious." http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6952/ron52.txt At this moment, Worf chooses to defy the General for control of the ship. It is clear that the crew can't stand another defeat and Worf wants his friend to see it. In the following struggle, Martok again feels what it is to be a Klingon and when Worf realizes he made his point, he lets Martok defeat him. With the crew behind him, Martok then proceeds to destroy a Jem'Hadar ship that was nearby and rescues 35 crewmembers from the B'Moth. Back at DS9, the crew is completely changed by his recent victory and Martok request 15 barrels of bloodwine to celebrate this. He later comes to Worf to thank him, offering him to join the House of Martok as a brother. Worf accepts this new beginning. Memorable Quotes "I am Worf, son of Mogh. I now take my place as first officer. I serve the captain, but I stand for the crew." : - Worf "It is clear to me that none of you are worthy of my blood or my life, but I will stand for you." : - Worf "They are soulless creatures fighting for no goal, no purpose except to serve the Founders. They take no pleasure in what they do... nothing is glorified, nothing affirmed. To the Jem'Hadar, we are nothing more than targets to be destroyed! I must not allow them to destroy us, Worf. I must not..." : - Martok "'Hear! Sons of kahless. Hear! Daughters too the blood of battle washes clean the warrior brave and true. we fight, we love, and then we kill our lives burn short and bright then we die with honor and join our fathers in the black fleet where we battle forever battling on through the eternal fight. : - Klingon Crew War song translation Background Information *No stardate is given in this episode, but Worf makes a Combat log on the fifty third day of the year of Kahless 999. **(Note that Klingon years do not match standard Terran years.) *LeVar Burton directs his eighth Star Trek episode here, his sixth for Deep Space Nine. *The ''Rotarran'' makes its first appearance in this episode. The Rotarran would reappear as Martok's command ship in "Sons and Daughters" before being replaced by the Ch'Tang in "Once More Unto the Breach". * Ronald D. Moore's original idea for this episode was for Worf and the crew of the ''Rotarran'' to answer a distress call from a Klingon colony, only to find the entrance to Gre'thor on the planet. The concept proved to be too complex and expensive at the time, but it later formed the basic plot of the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Barge of the Dead" which Moore also wrote. *Armin Shimerman (Quark) does not appear in this episode. Links and References Guest Stars *David Graf as Leskit *Rick Worthy as Kornan *Sandra Nelson as Tavana *Aron Eisenberg as Nog *J.G. Hertzler as Martok Co-Stars *Scott Leva as Ortikan References active polaron scan; alert status one; asteroid field; auto-suture; ''B'Moth'', IKS; barrel; battle cruiser; bloodwine; bok-rat; bow thruster; brachial artery; Cardassian; Cardassian border; commendation; computer core; crew roster; d'k tahg; Dax, Curzon; ''Defiant'', USS; detached service; distress call; docking clamp; Dominion prison camp; duty roster; Ferengi; first officer; fleet liaison officer; garbage scow; Glinn; Great House; Gul; holo-preojection; House of Martok; House of Mogh; Imperial Klingon Defense Forces; intelligence officer; Jem'Hadar; Jem'Hadar patrol ship; ''K't'inga''-class; Kahless the Unforgettable; kellicam; Klingon Bird-of-Prey; Klingon Empire; Klingon High Council; Klingon warrior's anthem; leave; Legate; mooring; neck bone; ocular implant; operating system; parMach'kai; personnel report; phaser relay; phaser rifle; pirate; pre-fire chamber; priority message; prison record; Qo'noS; record of battle; ''Rotarran'', IKS; security clearance; sensor ghost; Shovak; small arms recalibration; stewed bok-rat liver; Tong Beak Nebula; tova'dok. |next= }} Category:DS9 episodes de:Martoks Ehre es:Soldiers of the Empire nl:Soldiers of the Empire